[Coors]

Went to the hills wheeling in the snow yesterday, all went fine, drove home about 40 miles. Parked it. Went inside for the night, stormed like crazy last night, lost of rain, come out this morning to the rear window had broke. It was tinted before i got it, so it didn't totally fall apart, but it slide down into tail gate about 4 inches and then fell over inside. Wasn't parked where it could be hit with anything. Didn't see any signs of anything hitting it. Read a lot about them breaking when in the down position from the to torque rod breaking, but nothing along these lines. Took it all apart and all seem good.

Anyone ever had one break just sitting? I'm stumped short of some random object hitting it last night.

 

[MojoJojo]

Could it have been hail?

 

[flomaster]

I'd bet that the internal spring for the tailgate rusted through and finally broke.

 

[fodder]

My guess would be it cracked while wheeling, and the tint held it together enough to not notice. Then, the heavy storm and possibly temperature changes from snow were enough to put it over the top.

 

[CrazyBRONCOguy]

I have had this happen. On mine the passenger side window track let go and broke the glass.
The torsion rod was already out of my tailgate when this happened.
Is it heated glass on yours? Another thought I had was that the wires for this some how met with the wires for the tailgate motor. Since this is hot all the time, could have powered the heater element oddly, or the rain shorted it out from a new chaffed spot from the wheeling adventures.

 

[Coors]

Could it have been hail?

I don't believe so

 

[Coors]

I'd bet that the internal spring for the tailgate rusted through and finally broke.

That's only an issue when the window is down from my understanding, but no it is fine still

 

[Coors]

My guess would be it cracked while wheeling, and the tint held it together enough to not notice. Then, the heavy storm and possibly temperature changes from snow were enough to put it over the top.

It was day light still when i came home. I would have noticed it for sure driving home. Had a group of rigs behind me the whole way. was looking out rear view for about 40 miles

 

[Coors]

I have had this happen. On mine the passenger side window track let go and broke the glass.
The torsion rod was already out of my tailgate when this happened.
Is it heated glass on yours? Another thought I had was that the wires for this some how met with the wires for the tailgate motor. Since this is hot all the time, could have powered the heater element oddly, or the rain shorted it out from a new chaffed spot from the wheeling adventures.

Yes it is heated. I kind of thought i was gonna find an issue with the track when i took it apart, but all is fine. After doing some reading, I'm leaning more towards the heating element theory. Guess i will put a new one in and find out what happens. found a local glass shop to have it for 100 bucks.

 

[fodder]

It was day light still when i came home. I would have noticed it for sure driving home. Had a group of rigs behind me the whole way. was looking out rear view for about 40 miles

You're in denial if you're that confident you would have noticed a small crack. I had a rock chip fixed recently and was sure there was only one, but it turned out there was a second one I didn't even see from inside. And that was directly in front of me. The rearview mirror covers not much more than half of the rear window's field of view, plus some is covered by the weatherstrip and external spare tire if you have it. And no way would a vehicle behind you see a small crack unless they were hyper-miling on your bumper. Even then, they'd be looking down at sheet metal, not up at glass.

 

[Coors]

You're in denial if you're that confident you would have noticed a small crack. I had a rock chip fixed recently and was sure there was only one, but it turned out there was a second one I didn't even see from inside. And that was directly in front of me. The rearview mirror covers not much more than half of the rear window's field of view, plus some is covered by the weatherstrip and external spare tire if you have it. And no way would a vehicle behind you see a small crack unless they were hyper-miling on your bumper. Even then, they'd be looking down at sheet metal, not up at glass.

Never seen that type of glass get small crack in it. Its not like a windshield that can have a crack. The rear window is like side windows. When the get anything wrong they completely shatter

 

[nekkidhillbilly]

you guys never had the window blow out of a car just random like that? i have had some that got extremely cold then when the sun came out it the extreme temp change caused it to shatter. its rare but it does happen.

 

[fodder]

Never seen that type of glass get small crack in it. Its not like a windshield that can have a crack. The rear window is like side windows. When the get anything wrong they completely shatter

Not necessarily, when tint is holding things together. Temperature changes can then make it spread beyond the tipping point.

Conversely, I believe tint shops are generally unwilling to tint moon roofs. Something about the film not expanding and contracting the same as the glass, making blowouts possible. I'm not sure why that would be any different than side windows, though. But, the unframed Bronco tailgate window is probably closer to the structure of a moon roof than that of any of the other panes.

 

[MarktheShark]

Went to the hills wheeling in the snow yesterday, all went fine, drove home about 40 miles. Parked it. Went inside for the night, stormed like crazy last night, lost of rain, come out this morning to the rear window had broke. It was tinted before i got it, so it didn't totally fall apart, but it slide down into tail gate about 4 inches and then fell over inside. Wasn't parked where it could be hit with anything. Didn't see any signs of anything hitting it. Read a lot about them breaking when in the down position from the to torque rod breaking, but nothing along these lines. Took it all apart and all seem good.

Anyone ever had one break just sitting? I'm stumped short of some random object hitting it last night.

Mine did the same exact thing about a year ago. Torsion bar was fine, nothing was wrong on the inside, It just broke. I thought it was maybe 2 things, 1.) Getting the glass from the junkyard and maybe I laid on the paint too thick repairing the defrost lines and maybe it weakened it somehow, or 2.) My driveway has a pretty aggressive bump going from the road to my driveway, possibly torquing the body/tailgate/glass enough to break it. I just don't know. I just installed a new tailgate (because it was rusting and falling apart anyway), mostly new innards, and a new glass last week. I have a softopper so I haven't had to use the glass yet. Im putting on my hard top on Friday so I've got my fingers crossed. Good luck.

P.S. I off-road all the time in my rig but even if it's cold, I drop the window down because I'm fearful of the glass breaking because my rig was flexing too much so, I'll always scratch my head on it breaking.